Hotel Nears Reality After 12 Years Of Talk

POMPANO BEACH — If all goes as planned, a luxury hotel that has been almost all talk for the past 12 years will be complete within two years.

After 12 years of haggling, the Stephanis brothers received final approval from the city to build their $26 million luxury Clarion Hotel overlooking the Hillsboro Inlet.

Now the challenge for Jim and Tom Stephanis is to get going within the next six months, before the Planning and Zoning approval expires.

City Planner Fred Kleingartner said approved site plans call for the hotel to be 17 stories on the east side and 10 stories on the west side. He said the Stephanis brothers already have met city requirements for parking and utilities. ``It looks like they are ready to go right ahead,`` Kleingartner said.

When the Planning and Zoning Board met last month, there were some questions about easy access for fire and police, landscaping and other details.

Project manager Stanley Groves agreed to put in sufficient trees, and to install an automatic sprinkler system in the building in addition to widening access for fire vehicles.

``All the questions were answered,`` said Bruce Owen, a member of the Planning and Zoning Board. ``Our purpose was just to make sure they were ready to go forth, and they are.``

Graves said the issue is now how quickly they can get the structure up. He said he expects permits to take six months, and construction to take another 18 months.

``I would say two years is a good estimate for total buildout,`` Graves said.